Duchess of Cambridge launches new Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood - Daily Mail

The Duchess of Cambridge stepped up her early years campaign today with the launch of a new initiative dedicated to raising awareness of and driving action on this crucial period in a child's life.

Kate, 39, is launching The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, which will drive focus on bringing to light the extraordinary impact of the early years in order to transform society for generations to come. .

The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood will focus on three key areas of activity in the years to come, which include promoting and commissioning high-quality research to increase knowledge and share best practice. It will also work with people from across the private, public and voluntary sectors to collaborate on new solutions, and develop creative campaigns to raise awareness and inspire action - driving real, positive change on the early years.

The launch of the Centre comes one week after the Duchess was joined by the US First Lady Dr Jill Biden on a visit to Connor Downs Academy in Cornwall. The duo visited the school's Reception Class to hear how its pupils are supported through a bespoke Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum before hosting a roundtable on the importance of early childhood, attended by experts from the UK and the USA.  .

The Duchess of Cambridge stepped up her early years campaign today with the launch of a new initiative dedicated to raising awareness of and driving action on this crucial period in a child's life.

Kate said hearing from teachers and parents in 2018 helped her understand the need to support children before school, which led her to 'the science of our early childhoods and the lifelong impact of our physical and mental wellbeing'.

In that time Kate also convened a steering group of experts to look at how cross-sector collaboration could bring about lasting change, and spent time listening to the public about their views on the importance of the early years. As a result, she is committed to elevating the importance of early childhood and continuing the conversation on this vital issue. .

Sharing a video to the Kensington Palace Instagram page, entitled '10 years in the making', Kate said: 'My early years journey began by meeting people rebuilding their lives from addiction, homelessness and family breakdown.

But learning more only highlighted the need to start this earlier in life. Hearing from teachers and parents [in 2018] helped me understand the need to support children before school, which led me to the science of our early childhoods and the lifelong impact of our physical and mental wellbeing.

The launch of The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood is a landmark step in Her Royal Highness' work and signals her lifelong commitment to improving outcomes across society. To coincide with the launch, the Centre has published its inaugural report, Big Change Starts Small, which brings together leading sector research in one place and underlines the critical lifelong impact of the early years on individuals, our economy and society at large. .

Sharing a video to the Kensington Palace Instagram page, entitled '10 years in the making', Kate said: 'My early years journey began by meeting people rebuilding their lives from addiction, homelessness and family breakdown'.

The launch of the Centre comes one week after the Duchess was joined by the US First Lady Dr Jill Biden on a visit to Connor Downs Academy in Cornwall.

Alongside the launch of the Centre and the publication of the report, the Duchess has launched a new website which will help to raise awareness of the importance of early childhood, laying out the scientific, economic and social opportunity for change. 

Chair of The Royal Foundation, Lord Hague said: 'The launch of the Centre for Early Childhood is a pivotal moment in The Duchess of Cambridge's work on this critical issue. 

'The Duchess and the Foundation will aim to bring people together from all corners of the country and all parts of society to help improve early childhoods and ultimately lifelong outcomes. 

The findings from that research, combined with further representative research conducted by Ipsos MORI, showed that most people don't understand the specific importance of early childhood, and revealed that the Covid-19 pandemic had resulted in a dramatic increase in parental loneliness. 

Rebecca Priestley, who accompanied Kate and worked as her private secretary for five years, said these trips played a pivotal role in her choosing early years of childhood as one of the main pillars of her public role

The Duchess and Dr Jill Biden visited the Connor Downs Academy school's Reception Class to hear how its pupils are supported through a bespoke Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum before hosting a roundtable on the importance of early childhood, attended by experts from the UK and the USA

In 2018 Kate created a steering group to investigate the link between childhood experiences and adult behaviour and hopes that the results of their survey and other research will encourage a 'nationwide conversation' on the subject, raising awareness of how the first five years of a child's life will impact the next 50 years.